Barbara Myerhoff

Barbara Myerhoff
Born	Barbara Gay Siegel (1935-02-16)February 16, 1935 Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
Died	January 7, 1985(1985-01-07) (aged 49) Burbank, California, U.S.
Alma mater	University of California, Los Angeles
Occupation(s)	Anthropologist, filmmaker
Spouse	Lee Myerhoff ​ ​ (m. 1954; div. 1982)​

Barbara Myerhoff (February 16, 1935 – January 7, 1985) was an American anthropologist and filmmaker, and founder of the Center for Visual Anthropology at the University of Southern California.

Biography

Born in Cleveland Ohio, Myerhoff's work with the Jewish community in Venice, California was documented in the 1976 ethnographic film Number Our Days, directed by Lynne Littman. Number Our Days was published in book form in 1979, and performed as a play at the Mark Taper Forum in 1982. She served as the department chair of anthropology at the University of Southern California from 1976-1980.

Her next project, In Her Own Time, was taken over by Lynne Littman and Vikram Jayanti when Myerhoff was diagnosed with cancer. She died in 1985.

Works

• Peyote Hunt: The Sacred Journey of the Huichol Indians (1974)
• "We Don't Wrap Herring in a Printed Page: Fusions, Fiction and Continuity in Secular Ritual" in Secular Ritual: Forms and Meanings edited by Sally Falk Moore and Barbara Myerhoff (1977)
• "Bobbes and Zeydes: Old and New Roles for Elderly Jews" in Women in Ritual and Symbolic Roles, edited by Judith Hoch-Smith and Anita Springs (1978)
• Number Our Days (1978)
• In Her Own Time, with Lynne Littman (1986)
• Remembered Lives: The Work of Ritual, Storytelling, and Growing Older, edited by Mark Kamisky (1992)

Awards

• 1977: Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject for Number Our Days
• 1979: Pushcart Prize for Number Our Days
• 1980: Woman of the Year by the Jewish War Veterans of America

Filmography

• Number Our Days (1976)
• In Her Own Time (1986)

Bibliography

• Myerhoff, Barbara G. (1976). Peyote Hunt: The Sacred Journey of the Huichol Indians. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0801491375.
• Myerhoff, Barbara (1992). Kaminsky, Marc (ed.). Remembered Lives: The Work of Ritual, Storytelling, and Growing Older. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0472081776.
• Ruby, Jay (1982). Crack in the Mirror: Reflexive Perspectives in Anthropology. Introduction by Barbara Myerhoff and Jay Ruby. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0812278156.

See also

• Tim Asch
• Jay Ruby
• Stuart Goldman
• Deena Metzger

External links

• Barbara Myerhoff biography at the Jewish Women's Archive
• Barbara Myerhoff at IMDb